Reduce, reuse, recycle is rather an excellent idea, but...

This rant inspired by the article I received recently because I’m subscribed to some health related sites. (EZ)

...Did you hear the news? Seattle has just placed a city-wide ban on plastic straws…

Here’s how it works:

Plastic straws are no longer automatically being handed out to customers who buy a drink.

Instead, they’ll have to ask for one, or will be given an “alternative” type of straw that breaks down in compost.

Now, this “ban” has created a lot of mixed reactions. (anything that’s a ban makes my skin crawl, edit EZ)

On one hand, these alternative straws are more expensive than plastic. So who picks up the slack? The business, or the customer? (The customer of course, it’s not even a question, edit EZ).

But then again, the extra cost is only a few cents… and the pros could really outweigh the cons...

(Or could they? EZ) 

The article goes on and on about reusable straws vs plain straw, types of reusable straws, drinking without straw at all, health hazards and benefits and some other things... 

...There are plenty of (reusable) options out there: Paper, silicone, glass, stainless steel…

so here is my thoughts about it:

How about glass or stainless steel straw rubbing against your teeth? And if you do it every day you’ll get the same problem professional seamstresses have ( little dents in teeth matter from keeping needles between their teeth ) only on a larger scale, and don’t tell me you don’t touch the straw with your teeth.

Point, how do you wash all those reusable straws? Dishwasher doesn’t know to aim the stream into the straw, and unless you have some fancy special appliance with a tiny brush and wash it by hands every day you are getting bacteria and fungi that will make you sick way faster than plastic particles (and, are you positive you’ll do it every day?). 

Another point, to produce glass, stainless steel or thick BPA free straws, manufacturers expend a lot more resources than a thin walled plain old non-reusable plastic straws. Has anyone made an analysis on how much electricity, materials and work hours spent on each one? To me it’s not just an issue of price, but the resources, expended to create them. 

My third point is about health hazards of leaching chemicals from plastic. The thing is, that plain old non reusable straw you get is new every time. That is not so about reusable plastic straw. The chemical release worsens with time. So basically the longer you use it, the more micro damage occurs, the more chemicals wind up in your GI tract. Same goes for reusing plastic bottles, and how they get thinner and thinner with each passing year, easier to damage, but that rant is for another time...

I’m saying this because... For example the eternal debate “plastic bag vs reusable bag”, there has been a study done (by Europeans of course) that average reusable bag starts paying for itself after 200 - 250 uses. Because that much more energy and resources are expended to create it. That’s if you are buying groceries every day(!) for almost a year. Have you had a reusable bag that last that long? 

I haven’t researched the paper straws, but one fact comes to mind - to create a one cubic meter of paper manufacturers have to spend 300 cubic meter of clean drinkable “potable” water, and (of course!) they have filters to return safer water back to the body of water they are using for their purposes, but it’s not “potable” anymore because the standard requirements for the cleanliness of that return water are so lax that no self-respecting fish is gonna live there. 

I’m an industrial architect, I know a lot of processes involved in industrial facilities. Believe me, it’s just a few examples in the war between reusable vs single use. I do love another one - bottled water vs filters, but I will rant about that later... Some things are made single use for a reason. Before expressing your opinion, do your research thoroughly. 

As for straw vs no straw drinking, I have to agree that no straw is just better all around. 

Another tip from the industrial architect - after I designed a facility producing vegetable oil, I started using only first cold press virgin oils. You should too...

Yours truly, E